JUDGMENT CALL : The Man Who Stymied Giamatti Isn’t Used to Spotlight

A low-profile state judge who was thrust into the national spotlight by Pete Rose’s lawsuit against major league baseball took center stage Sunday.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Norbert A. Nadel, in an unprecedented ruling, blocked Commissioner Bart Giamatti from holding a hearing that could have led to Rose being banned from baseball for gambling.

Nadel, 51, grew up in Cincinnati. He was appointed to office and is up for election next year.

He received degrees from the University of Cincinnati and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law before it became part of Northern Kentucky University.

He became an assistant U.S. Attorney in December, 1969, and later became head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s legal business for its southern district of Ohio, which encompassed 10 counties.

Nadel, a Republican, was appointed to the Hamilton County Municipal Court bench in April, 1974, by then-Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes. He won election in 1980 to a newly created post as a Domestic Relations judge in Hamilton County. He became the chief judge on that court and angered some local Republicans by declining to replace top-level Democrats when he took over. He explained his decision at the time by saying: “We’re doing what we think is right. I’m a very loyal Republican, but I have a responsibility to do a good job.”

In 1982, he failed to win election to a newly created post on the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

Rhodes appointed him to a seat on the court a month later, after the death of a judge. Nadel was assigned the three cases related to the collapse of the Cincinnati-based Home State Savings Bank in 1985.

He later withdrew from hearing the cases against former Home State owner Marvin Warner and former thrift presidents Burton Bongard and David Schiebel because Bongard contributed to Nadel’s election campaigns.

THE HOME STATE CASES WERE THE MOST PROMINENT NADEL HA

Nadel showed emotion Sunday, raising his voice as he read his unprecedented decision granting Rose a temporary restraining order. The order will halt a hearing scheduled today before Giamatti.

Early in the two-day hearing on the order last week, Nadel also demonstrated a dry sense of humor.

The resume of one of Rose’s lawyers was introduced into the court record before he testified, a standard procedure. When another lawyer told the judge he could read the full resume later, Nadel smiled and said, “Don’t bet on it.”